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Visiting Kennedy SPACE CENTER
PSA Journal, Jan, 2000 by Bobby D. Parker
If you're interested in space exploration, then visit the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. It's one trip you'll never forget and the price is right. Make sure you take your camera along as you'll want to capture all exhibits evidenced.
It's my suggestion that you bring one or two 35mm cameras, with a zoom 28mm-105mm or 200mm lens, a monopod or tripod, 400 or 800 negative film of your choice, a flash for darker exhibit rooms, and a smaller digital video or still camera if available.
The Mission Pass or the Crew Pass is the best way to experience the past, present, and future ($26.00 or $19.00). That's cheaper than any of the amusement parks in Orlando.
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The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex includes: Universe Theatre's Quest for Life, Merritt National Wildlife Refuge Exhibit, the Rocket Garden (rockets utilized in past missions), Center for Space Education, Mission to Mars, Gallery of Space Flight, Robot Scouts, Launch Status Center, Shuttle Plaza (walk over a platform into an actual orbiter, viewing the upper and lower cabin, as well as the cargo bay area, and on ground level, viewing the solid rocket boosters attached to the external tank), Astronaut Memorial, Two Imax Theaters, Restaurants, and a Space Shop for souvenirs.
The Kennedy Space Center Tour's first stop is at the 60-foot tall LC-39 Observatory Gantry providing a breathtaking 360-degree view of the historic Launch Pad 39A (one mile), 39B (2 miles), the Vehicle Assembly building, and the tractor path of the crawler when the orbiter is transported to the launch complex. The above items are located at Kennedy Space Center. You can also view the Titan's Launch Towers and some of the other sights on Cape Canaveral Air Station. Use your tripod and zoom lens for short and long shots, and if brightness is a factor, the polarizer.
On our way to the next sight, we pass the Crawler Transporter (designed to carry space vehicles to the launch complex), and the Vehicle Assembly Building (one of the largest facilities of its kind), where the two solid rocket boosters are assembled to the external tank onto the mobile launch platform where the orbiter is then attached. The VAB Building has four high bays and four low bays on each side. The dwarfed building in front of the VAB building is the Launch Control Center. There are three firing rooms. It is here that pre-launch testing of the Shuttle package is controlled and monitored, and where the command to "go for launch" is issued. Make sure to sit on the fight side of the bus next to the window and have your camera willing and ready to photograph these locations. I suggest utilizing at least 400 negative film and using a polarizer to cut down on the glass glare.
As the bus makes a right turn past the VAB Building, you'll see three smaller buildings which are the Orbiter Processing Facilities for each Orbiter. After each completed mission by the Orbiter, it is taken from the Kennedy Space Center Landing Facility to the the Orbiter Processing Facility where all parts are removed, inspected, and refurbished before its journey to the VAB Building, and for attachment to the solid rocket boosters and external tank for the next mission.
About a mile down the road, we pass the Kennedy Space Center Landing Facility on the left side of the road. The Shuttle Landing Facility is 15,000 feet long and 300 feet wide with 1,000 feet of overruns at each end. The paving thickness is 16 inches. Our second stop is the Apollo/Saturn V Center. The center brings the U.S. space program's missions to the moon to life through dramatic multimedia shows hands-on displays and real Apollo flight hardware. You'll see a real Saturn V Rocket (stronger than 87 Hoover Dams on take-off), the most powerful rocket ever built. It's a three-stage rocket standing 363 feet high, and weighing 6.2 million pounds. You will experience the excitement and suspense of a launch as the countdown begins in the firing room.
Following the multimedia launch, you will enter the Saturn V rocket plaza where you can walk around and under the enormous moon rocket. There are numerous exhibits and displays that cover specific aspects of the Apollo program along the walk through the plaza. On display is an original Lunar Excursion Module and the Command Module high above.
The Command Module used for the Apollo/ Soyuz Test Project in 1975 is also on display. At the end of the plaza, a recreation of America's first manned lunar mission, Apollo 11, is presented in the Lunar Landing Theater. Apollo 13, Commander Jim Lovell's actual space suit is on display, as well as, other space artifacts. There is also a Lunar Rover Vehicle used on the moon for travel. It could travel a total of 40 miles at 10 mph. Your photograph needs in the Apollo/Saturn V Center will be a monopod or tripod, 400 or 800 negative film, and maybe a flash.
As our transportation takes us to the next stop, we pass the Kennedy Space Center Headquarters Building, the Operations and Checkout Building, and the Flight Crew Training Building.
